


Loona: The Fashion Company

by friedbanana



Category: LOONA (Korea Band)
Genre: Attempt at Humor, F/F, com with a little bit of rom?, idk what to put TT, pls dont judge the title, tbh idk where this is going, this is just for laughs because im bored at home
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-25
Updated: 2020-06-13
Packaged: 2021-03-03 01:42:08
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,169
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24366754
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/friedbanana/pseuds/friedbanana
Summary: “Let’s start a company together when we graduate!” Jinsoul pumps her hand up in the air, turning excitedly to her two schoolmates.“Yeah and what are we gonna do?” Sooyoung raises her eyebrow, leaning back to stare disapprovingly at Jinsoul.Jinsoul ponders for a while staring into nothing until Haseul interrupts. “Mm, maybe fashion? Since you are a model, Sooyoung.”“Why are you giving in to her random thoughts?” Sooyoung points at Haseul, betrayed.Haseul merely shrugs and indulges Jinsoul's idea even more.“We can name it Loona,” she speaks pensively as if she’s aware of her position as a member in a South Korean idol girl group in another universe.OrLoona: The Office AU
Relationships: Ha Sooyoung | Yves/Kim Jiwoo | Chuu, Jeon Heejin/Kim Hyunjin, Jo Haseul/Viian Wong | ViVi, Jung Jinsol | Jinsoul/Kim Jungeun | Kim Lip, Park Chaewon | Go Won/Son Hyejoo | Olivia Hye
Comments: 10
Kudos: 70





	1. Yerim’s first day

It is small, per se, as Yerim peers up to the three-storey pristine building where she will be calling her second home for a period of time. Today marks her first day as an intern at Loona; a company that specializes in women's fashion and values set on women empowerment. To say that she is excited is an understatement as even though this company is small, they have already gained their foothold in the industry within two years for being well-known for their motto: made by women, for women. Yerim has set her eyes upon this company ever since she went for a guest lecture held by one of their founders. Not to mention, the confidence and aura the founder exuded has made Yerim feel empowered and enthused enough to apply for their internship.

  
  
  
  
  


Yerim takes a deep breath as she heads in, taking in the sight of her surroundings as she makes her way to the reception. There she sees a girl who's shorter than her conversing with the receptionist. She's close enough to hear bits of their conversation. 

"Tell me Vivi, how much are you willing to bet that Haseul's gonna freak out when she sees it in her office?"

The woman looks up from her computer screen and stares composedly at the girl. 

"I'm not betting anything, Yeojin. If you want to survive through your internship, I would highly recommend that you sneak back in and remove whatever you had just placed in Haseul's office before she arrives."

"Like hell I'm gonna miss this chance to mess with her after not seeing her for such a long time." The said girl just scoffs.

"Suits you," the woman deadpans and looks behind the shorter girl.

"Hi, how may I help you?" Yerim jumps a little at the sudden attention.

"Hi um, my name is Choi Yerim and today is my first day as an intern here."

"Oh hey, another intern!" The shorter girl turns and looks at Yerim for the first time. "My name is Yeojin and I'm also starting my internship today! What department are you in?"

"Uh, the Fashion department?" Yerim answers.

"Nice! Me too!" The shorter girl seemingly wants to continue this conversation but was cut short by Vivi.

"Ok, Yerim right? Here's your employee pass and please follow me to the meeting room." The older woman grabs her employee pass and signals them to follow as she taps her card near the door on her right.

  
  
  
  


It is another understatement to say that Yerim is surprised when they follow Vivi to the meeting room. She thought that they were probably going to just have an orientation given by the woman herself. So imagine her dismay when a whole group of people were already sitting inside the meeting room seemingly waiting for the interns to arrive. 

"Ah, everybody is here." Vivi mumbles as she pushes the transparent door to the circular meeting room. She steps aside to let Yerim and Yeojin in before gesturing for them to sit. 

Yerim takes a look around the room warily and spots the familiar figure that she admires, standing in the middle of the meeting room waiting to address everyone.

"Ehem," the said woman clears her throat. 

"You don't have to keep doing that to assert dominance, Sooyoung." The black-haired woman to her left drawls as she leans back into her seat and Yerim immediately recognises her as one of the co-founders.

"Shut up, Jinsoul. We both know I'm the boss here when Haseul's not around." Sooyoung rebuts smugly.

"Tch-" The black-haired woman retorts but is interrupted by Vivi who had taken a seat next to Yerim. "Let's just start," she states wearily. And Yerim is once again surprised by how much power this woman seemingly holds over the two directors considering she's probably just a receptionist (she is not just a receptionist).

"Anyway," Sooyoung claps as the entire meeting room erupts into an applause. "Let's welcome our two new interns, Choi Yerim and Im Yeojin!" She grins at them.

"Let's go round the table to introduce ourselves. I'll start, I'm Sooyoung, the Co-Founder and Director of Loona's Fashion department. Both of you will be working together with Jungeun, Heejin and me," she gestures to herself. 

Beside her seats a brunette who looks especially bored. 

"Hi, my name is Jungeun, I'm a fashion designer and stylist and I hope you guys will enjoy your internship here," she smiles shyly at them.

"Hello, my name is Heejin and I'm also a fashion designer. Hope to work well with you two!" The woman next to Jungeun waves cheerfully.

The woman seated beside Heejin just stares at her until Heejin gives her a pointed look. She turned towards their side and simply muttered. "Aeong." _Is that even a word?_

Grunts and sighs filled the meeting room and a very bubbly woman spoke up. 

"Please don't mind Hyunjin, she's always going around like this. You would be lucky if you catch her speaking human language. Oh and I'm Jiwoo! Hyunjin and I are both in-charge of sales," Jiwoo beams cutely.

Meanwhile, a girl, dressed in all black next to Jiwoo shows a stark contrast as she just states her name coyly. "Hyejoo." 

"Marketing intern." She immediately darts her eyes downwards nervously upon meeting the eyes of a blonde girl opposite her.

The said blonde girl turns and smirks at them, "I'm Chaewon and I'm under marketing."

"I'm Vivi, I'm covering the reception duties currently although I'm actually Haseul's secretary." Vivi who's seated next to Yerim offers while she glares at Sooyoung.

To which Sooyoung gulps and replies. "We… will find a replacement for the reception soon..."

"And it's finally my turn! Drum roll please." The other co-founder waits as her employees begrudgingly accede to her request and start thumping their hands on the table. 

"Thank you, thank you." Jinsoul gestures for everyone to stop and Yerim sees Sooyoung roll her eyes so hard at her co-founder's antics and deadpans. "Can you hurry up?"

Jinsoul ignores her as she focuses on Yerim and Yeojin. 

"Welcome to Loona and I'm Jinsoul, Co-Founder of this company and also Head of the Sales and Marketing department. Although you two are not under my department, I think I will see both of you around often as it appears that our employees love to mingle across departments." She winks at them and Yerim wonders what that means. 

"Ok ok, this wraps up our little meeting. Uh, as you can see Haseul who is also our co-founder is not here currently because she has a meeting with one of our partners so we will introduce you to her when she's back. Vivi, I will leave you to show our interns around." Sooyoung concludes and everyone takes this as the cue to leave.

Yeojin snickers beside her at the mention of Haseul and Yerim briefly wonders if she should ask Yeojin what her relationship with Haseul is and just what she had put in her office...

Albeit feeling a little strange about the dynamics of her new workplace, Yerim can't help but think that she is going to have a good time interning at this company as she looks around the room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> please let me know your thoughts on this, thank you for reading! :)


	2. Yeojin and her shenanigans

Yeojin groaned as a stack of papers were placed in front of Yerim and her. The bold words at the front cover reads, ' **Company Policy** '.

"Haseul's orders." Vivi shrugs innocently and Yeojin is sure at that moment that this woman definitely had a hand in this, knowing how Yeojin will have a hard time digesting all this information. _It's like reading the terms and conditions!_ To think that Haseul actually wants her to read through all these pages is… actually pretty Haseul. Scratch that, but Vivi definitely had played a role in Haseul's decision making process. 

"I'll be back in about 15 minutes to bring both of you around the office and to your respective desks." Yeojin narrows her eyes at Vivi as the woman just smiles innocently and retreats, leaving the two interns in the meeting room. _Suspicious._

She glances over to Yerim and it seems that the other intern has already started on her reading, having already flipped through the first few pages. Yeojin huffs, a little unwillingly to give in but she's also feeling a little bad for Yerim since it is sort of her fault that the other girl has to read this stupid papers.

"Hey," Yeojin pauses and continues when the other girl looks up. "Sorry you have to read this, Haseul must have wanted to put me through this hell in an effort to stop me from doing things." 

"Doing what things? Is it like the thing you planted in Haseul's office?" Yerim questions, eyes wide. Yeojin's eyes light up with mischief at the mention. 

"You will see later when Haseul comes back," she wiggles her eyebrows at Yerim. 

"Do you know Haseul personally? It just seems that you already know Vivi and Haseul pretty well." Yerim chuckles and adds.

"I'm actually Haseul's cousin! And my parents wanted me to intern here so that Haseul can keep an eye on me. Pfft, like I need any supervision, I'm already an adult!" Yeojin exasperates. "Anyways, I know Vivi because Haseul brings her over to all our family gatherings and she kept saying that Vivi's just a good friend. Like hell I believe that, there's something between those two."

Yerim merely nods at the newfound information, deep in her own thoughts. And Yeojin figures it may be a little too much for the intern to know considering it's only her first day.

"I think we should probably go back to reading this in case we get quizzed later," Yeojin puffs defeatingly.

30 seconds later…

"See!" Yeojin smacks her hand on the papers. "The dating policy in this company is so weird! Which company does this?"

Yerim immediately flips to the dating policy page to see:

**Dating Policy**

  1. In this free society, we are free to date anyone, just make sure you fulfill your job's responsibilities.



"I bet Haseul wrote this and bribed the other two co-founders just so that she has no boundaries when it comes to dating Vivi." Yeojin pumps her hand in the air triumphantly. "Found her weakness," she smirks to herself.

  
  
  
  
  


20 minutes later, Vivi saunters back to the meeting room, eyeing Yeojin while she addresses the both of them. 

"Are you done with the reading?" 

"Why are you only looking at me?" Yeojin asks disgruntledly, feeling indignant.

"If you're done, then let's move on." Vivi clears her throat and turns to Yerim and smiles, ignoring Yeojin's question.

The two interns follow her out as she shows them around the office.

"This is the Sales and Marketing Department." She gestures vaguely at the pretty empty department. 

"Jiwoo and Hyunjin are out so it's just Chaewon and Hyejoo here right now."

"Wow, your desks are so pretty." Yerim peers around to see that Chaewon's desk is mainly coloured in green, and two other desks are filled with peach pink and yellow while Hyejoo's desk is much much duller in comparison. It's coloured grey.

"Yeah, Jinsoul told us to express ourselves such that our workstations embody our personalities, so," Chaewon explains gesturing around and Hyejoo nods from her seat.

"Jinsoul's desk is further back," Vivi moves towards the director's bluish cubicle, only to stop short in her tracks as nobody is seated there. She walks back to Chaewon's desk and asks. "Where's Jinsoul?"

"She's over at the Fashion Department again," Chaewon barely looks up from her screen.

"Alright, let's head there." Vivi sighs as she signals Yeojin and Yerim to come along.

  
  
  
  
  


The Fashion Department appears more messy and hectic with the walls plastered with design works and clothes being strewn around as compared to the vibrant and orderly looking Sales and Marketing Department. It appears to be noisier as well since Jinsoul can be seen bickering with Sooyoung as she stands near Jungeun's desk.

"I would give you a run for your money at this tortoise rate you are going," Sooyoung sneers.

"Yeah you act like this and then you can't even ask a specific someone out." Jinsoul rolls her eyes and rambles on. "And give some respect to tortoises will you? Ever heard of the tortoise and the hare story?!"

"If you are just gonna bicker with Sooyoung, can you leave my desk because you are disrupting my work," Jungeun hisses irritatedly at Jinsoul.

Sooyoung sniggers loudly as Jinsoul flushes and immediately moves away but not without giving Jungeun a pout (to which Jungeun vehemently ignores and tries to hide her blush).

'I'll be back," Jinsoul mouths at Sooyoung as she leaves while the latter just flips her hair smugly.

Heejin is the first to spot them as she stands to retrieve one of her designs from the wall. "Oh hey Vivi, are the interns done?"

"Yeah, we just came from the Sales and Marketing Department." 

Sooyoung stands and welcomes them with applause. Music slowly starts to fill the room.

"Is that Sexy Back?" Yeojin exclaims excitedly. 

"Yeah!" Sooyoung replies enthusiastically with her own (a little) suggestive dance. 

"Wow, she's so much more fun unlike Haseul," Yeojin whispers and nudges Yerim softly.

"Ok, I'm gonna leave you at that and return to my RECEPTION desk", Vivi emphasizes and Sooyoung winces at that word. 

"Jeez, she just has to keep mentioning that huh…" Sooyoung mutters.

"If I were in Vivi's position, I would most definitely also guilt trip you at every opportunity I get," Jungeun states plainly.

"Yeah, you were the reason why Minhee quit in the first place anyway," Heejin agrees.

Sooyoung lets out a loud and long sigh and turns to Yeojin and Yerim. At this point, do they really want to know what Sooyoung had done to cause Minhee to tender her resignation?

"You two can sit over there, and Jungeun and Heejin will be your mentors," she points to the two empty desks opposite her two subordinates. “I hope you guys will stay,” Sooyoung adds, earnestly.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


"AHHHHHHHHH WHAT IS THIS WHO PUT IT HERE?!" 

A loud scream broke through the tranquility of the office in the late afternoon, alerting everyone. Jinsoul runs towards the voice and gets whacked by something thrown out of the office on her way there.

"Ouch!" She looks around for the object that had hit her. 

"AHAHAHAHAHA," Jinsoul's boisterous laughter filled the entire office. "Who put a pigeon figurine in Haseul's office?" She makes her way through the whole floor showing everyone as she tries to contain her laughter.

"AHHHHHH GO AWAY!" Heejin screams as Jinsoul shoves the pigeon figurine in her face. She tries running away as Jinsoul chases after her.

"Stop it." Hyunjin puts a hand in front of Jinsoul as Heejin hides behind her, sobbing. 

"Ugh, fine." Jinsoul backs away almost immediately for fear that she would be flipped over by her cat-like subordinate (and losing admiration in Jungeun's eyes).

Yeojin turns and winks at Yerim upon feeling her fellow intern’s curious stare.

Haseul walks out fuming. "Who did this? Own up and you shall be forgiven," she addresses the entire floor. Yeojin scoffs quietly to herself. Haseul is never one to forgive and she is not stupid enough to own up.

"Yeojin." A bored, monotonous voice speaks up from the front of the office. 

_Vivi_. Yeojin seethes. She should have known this woman would definitely stand on Haseul's side. A shadow towers over her. 

"Do you have something to say?" Yeojin looks up to see Haseul boring her eyes into hers.

"No." Yeojin stares back confidently. "How can you take Vivi's words so seriously when I'm supposed to be your kin here!"

"Vivi doesn't lie. You, however, have been a gremlin since little." Haseul pauses and narrows her eyes at Yeojin. "I'm gonna ask you one last time, are you going to admit that this is your doing?"

Yeojin scoffs loudly.

"Wrong move." Haseul simply states.

Before Yeojin can say anything else, Haseul turns to Sooyoung. "Yeojin will be interning under me from now on instead."

"What?! No!" Yeojin jumps up immediately.

Sooyoung glances around to gauge the atmosphere before chipping in. “Actually, we do need her as our intern because we have the showcase coming up soon?”

“What?!” Haseul turns towards Sooyoung furiously and Sooyoung just gives her a sheepish shrug.

“You are treading on thin ice, Im Yeojin,” she utters venomously before walking back to her office, shutting her door loudly.

  
  
  
  
  


“Alright, alright.” Sooyoung stands up with a shit-eating grin plastered on her face as she gestures with her hands.

Groans filled the room as people started shuffling towards Sooyoung’s desk. _What's happening?!_

“If only Jinsoul shoved the figurine in Haseul’s face instead of at Heejin, she would definitely have cursed and declared for us to leave work early, ”Jungeun clicks her tongue distastely as she places a ten-dollar bill on Sooyoung’s out-stretched hand.

"The last time she was so traumatized by a dead pigeon outside her window, she had let us all off work early," Sooyoung explains to Yerim and Yeojin. "Maybe you should have placed an actual dead one," she suggests thoughtfully to Yeojin.

“That is just morbid, Sooyoung. The previous time I had to spend the entire night comforting her. Though I’m not gonna lie, I was hoping that I can have an early night with Haseul.” Vivi sighs as she hands her money over before strolling back to the reception. 

"What was that about Haseul?!" Yeojin asks loudly, pointing at Vivi's retreating figure but nobody seems to hear her because Jinsoul raises her voice at the same moment.

“And I wasn’t let in on all these?!” Jinsoul stares betrayedly at everyone, especially at Jungeun and storms back to her desk in a fit of pique. (As a result, she misses the fleeting glance of guilt Jungeun had given her.)

“You are the key in this, thanks! ” Sooyoung gives Jinsoul a clearly unreciprocated flying kiss.

“Yeah I totally didn’t expect Jinsoul to shove it in my face, this must be karma,” Heejin sniffs. “Thanks Hyun,” Heejin murmurs as Hyunjin wipes off her tears.

“Aeong,” Hyunjin winks at Heejin and holds her hand out to receive her winnings from Sooyoung.

“Bleh, I’m gonna vomit. Can someone do something about this pair of lovebirds?” Chaewon speaks to no one in particular. “So much for trusting Jinsoul to do the right thing. There goes my plans for an early night,” she sighs wistfully.

“What would you do if you could leave early?” Hyejoo pipes up curiously.

“She would most definitely just end up gaming,” Jiwoo interjects (and Hyejoo lets out an inaudible gasp) as she walks to give Sooyoung her money, fingers brushing against Sooyoung’s palm not so discreetly.

"Okay, let's just all get back to work since we can't get off work early anyway," Sooyoung orders, trying to re-establish her authority as the co-founder (after coming up with such a bet in the first place).

  
  
  
  
  


_Holy shit._ Yeojin tries to process it all. She looks over at Sooyoung who is now triumphantly counting her winnings at her desk. 

Her admiration for her boss has just sky-rocketed.

  
  
  
  
  


_*A few hours ago*_

_Sooyoung pushes open the door to Haseul’s office to place her report on the director’s desk. However, on her usually clean desk sits an innocent pigeon figurine. She smirks to herself as an idea pops into her head and immediately rushes out to offer a bet to her co-workers._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hello im back~ work has been a bitch and im just glad i was able to churn this out despite feeling burnout from work
> 
> hope you guys enjoyed this chapter!


	3. Hyunjin's Croissants

It's another slow morning at work. Hyunjin has been planning their sales pitch for a new client with Jiwoo all morning. She’s famished, having not eaten her breakfast today. She stares eagerly at her clock as the minute hand ticks and points exactly at 12. She stands up from her chair, excited to ~~devour~~ savour the pastry she had bought earlier in the morning.

Every day without fail, Hyunjin will make her way into the bakery located just a block away from the office to get her favourite food, the croissant. A buttery, flaky pastry with Austrian origin as described by Wikipedia. As for Hyunjin, she likes to compare croissants to a sunny day, where the sun casts its light and warmth on all things. Such days make Hyunjin crave for croissants the most because the sun shines through the windows of her favourite bakery, perfectly casting light on the pastries displayed in the shop, bringing out the golden colours of the crispy pastry.

Ok, we get it.

A simple croissant can make or break Hyunjin's day. Just a taste of the savory buttery pastry makes her feel like she can get through the rest of the day easily. 

  
  
  
  
  


She hurries to the pantry eagerly only to find the bag gone from where it should be sitting on the table. Surprisingly (or unsurprisingly), the avocado toast that she had bought for Heejin remains as the said girl munches on it happily. 

“Did you see my croissants?” Hyunjin asks, starting to feel annoyed.

“No, I only saw the avocado toast when I came in earlier,” Heejin answers meekly.

Feeling anger bubbling up her chest, Hyunjin starts looking around the pantry, leaving no corners untouched. _Gone, without a trace._

"Ok, who touched my croissants?" Hyunjin trudges out to the middle of the hallway, addressing the whole office loudly. This comes as a surprise to Yerim and Yeojin because this is the first time they've heard the woman speak so many words, other than 'Aeong'.

Getting no response from the floor, she narrows her eyes suspiciously and scans across the entire level.

People who met her eyes either ducked or shook their heads at her. Some didn't even bother looking up, furiously typing away on their keyboards. Hyunjin makes a mental note on the potential suspects to herself. Nobody dared to make a move until Haseul walked out from her office. An angry Hyunjin is not one to be taken lightly.

"What's going on here? Hyunjin, what's wrong?" Haseul asks, concerned.

"Her croissants she bought for lunch are gone," Heejin pops up from the pantry.

"Whoever did this, you will perish once I catch you." Hyunjin enunciates every word as she scans the floor one last time, making sure they feel the burn of her stare. Then grabs her purse from her desk and stomps out of the office.

"She's probably heading to the bakery," Heejin explains and chases after her.

"Uh, lunch break I guess." Haseul announces, a little shaken by Hyunjin's antics (although she's mainly glad she didn't eat that girl's croissants by mistake) and retreats back to her office.

Anyone with eyes and ears knows that whoever touched Hyunjin's croissants will probably not live to see the light of the day. No matter if one confesses or not, once caught by Hyunjin, one's sure to die. The cat-like woman has shown her immense love for croissants pretty aggressively over the time she has been working at Loona.

_Incident 1:_

_"Hyunjin, your croissant smells good, can I have a bite?" Jiwoo asks anticipatingly._

_"NO." Hyunjin turns away and stuffs the rest of the pastry into her mouth, not forgetting to shoot a glare at Jiwoo. (The poor woman almost cried.)_

_Incident 2:_

_Jinsoul bumps into Hyunjin on her way back to her desk, causing the latter to drop her precious croissant._

_"YOU-" Hyunjin looks back and forth between Jinsoul and her croissant on the ground._

_Her glare turns murderous as she spits. "That was my one and only one."_

_Jinsoul bought her a dozen the next day because she felt bad (and also because she got shivers every time she walked past Hyunjin for the rest of that day)._

  
  
  
  
  
"Who do you think it was?" Yeojin slides into the seat with her sandwich in her hand next to Hyejoo in the pantry. And Chaewon notices the girl tensing up at the question.

"Uh, I don't know," Hyejoo stutters, her eyes trained on her soup.

"Well, whoever did this better pray they never get caught," Chaewon chimes in, stuffing a bite of her chicken salad into her mouth.

"Why, is Hyunjin that bad?" Yerim asks as she unwraps her food.

Chaewon scoffs loudly and continues after swallowing. "You haven't seen what she can do. One time Jinsoul accidentally made Hyunjin drop her croissant, she was so angry she literally was mapping out her elaborate plans to end our boss. Not to mention, she shot Jinsoul daggers at every chance she had gotten that day. Trust me, I sit next to her everyday, I can tell you her plans are still in the drawer of hers. If anyone has a death wish, please go ahead and confess you stole her croissants."

Chaewon stops her ramble and looks around the table to see all three interns staring at her with their jaws dropped and faces paled.

"Oh hey, are you telling them about the time I made Hyunjin drop her croissant?" Jinsoul walks into the pantry and sits at the table. "That was some scary shit. I could feel like my life was endangered," she recalls, rubbing the goosebumps on her arms. And Hyejoo chokes on her soup upon hearing Jinsoul's recount.

"Oh hey, are you ok?" Jinsoul pats Hyejoo's back worriedly while Chaewon immediately slides her cup of water to Hyejoo, who accepts it gratefully.

"I didn't mean to scare you all, but yeah, just keep in mind, Hyunjin is ruthless if you mess with her food, especially bread or pastries. And of course Heejin." Chaewon tries to comfort, unsure as to why her intern is reacting so weirdly over this.

"And our boss, Jinsoul manages to survive after messing with both Hyunjin's food and girl?" Yeojin slowly comes to a realization and gives the other director a thumbs up.

Jinsoul laughs awkwardly, rubbing her neck in discomfort. 

"Nah she's just lucky she got out unscathed, though the croissant incident was a pretty close call." Sooyoung interrupts as she approaches the water cooler in the pantry. "Almost lost you there, my best bud," Sooyoung pretends to wipe her tears as Jinsoul attempts to kick at her from her seat. Though she fails because Sooyoung immediately steps aside and sticks her tongue out at the co-founder.

"Why are you here and not with your favourite employee?" Jinsoul huffs, unhappy because she didn't get her revenge.

"Who- She's not my favourite employee! She's out with Jungeun, your CRUSH, for lunch," Sooyoung rolls her eyes.

"Jungeun is not just my CRUSH, she's more tha-"

"Can you guys PLEASE at least behave in front of your employees?" Haseul glares at her two old friends/co-founders as soon as she walks into the pantry. She can't help but rub her temple, feeling a headache coming.

"We do!" Jinsoul exclaims.

"We toned down a lot!" Sooyoung cries out at the same time.

They both shared a look before walking out of the pantry together, chest puffed and arms linked while ignoring Haseul.

"Tsk tsk, they are probably off to have lunch together. Until now I still don't know how their relationship dynamics work, one moment they can have childish fights then the other moment they can be like best friends," Haseul sighs and shakes her head.

"It's okay, boss. We are probably all used to it," Chaewon interjects and adds an 'I hope' as she glances sympathetically at the interns. Although her attention is focused more on Hyejoo as she contemplates.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


Later that afternoon, Hyunjin sits at her desk with an empty word document opened on her computer screen. She stares at the blank document, and starts thinking back on the morning's events. She carefully types, 'People I can rule out', and starts listing.

  * _Jiwoo - Was next to me the whole morning planning our sales pitch._
  * _The Fashion Department: Sooyoung, Jungeun, Heejin, Yerim, Yeojin - Was in the meeting room planning the showcase the entire morning. (Heejin vouched for all of them.)_



Then she starts a fresh list next to it, 'Potential Thieves'.

  * _Haseul - Vouched by Vivi (may not be credible due to relationship)_


  * _Vivi - Vouched by Haseul (may not be credible due to relationship)_


  * _Jinsoul - No alibi; no witness_


  * _Chaewon - No alibi; no witness_


  * _Hyejoo - No alibi; no witness (note: actually disappeared for a while in the morning)_



She puts her hands together and stares at the screen, the cursor blinking back at her. She thinks carefully before erasing Jinsoul's name under the 'Potential Thieves' list and moves her to a new list which she labels, 'Not so likely', giving consideration to her past experience.

"Wow, at least you have ruled out half of the company," Jiwoo interrupts as she stretches her neck to see Hyunjin's computer screen.

"What do you think?" Hyunjin looks at her coworker.

"I don't know, maybe you should start with the people who have no alibi or witness?" Jiwoo points out before focusing back on her work, leaving Hyunjin with her own thoughts.

Hyunjin deliberates on who to spy on. She should probably leave Haseul and Vivi out first since they are witnesses for each other, and start with the people who are the most suspicious on the list.

 _Chaewon._ Hyunjin tries to recall her entire morning. It seems like she was at her desk working all morning. As for Hyejoo, she remembers that the intern had left her desk for a short period of time in the morning. She rubs her chin, thinking hard. Hyunjin slams her hands on her table decisively, startling Jiwoo who lets out a yelp beside her. _It must be Hyejoo._

She lifts her head and looks around for her suspects and realizes that Chaewon and Hyejoo are missing from their desks right now. _How very suspicious._

  
  
  
  
  


Hyunjin starts looking for the two of them around the office. Washroom. _No trace._ The meeting room. _Empty._

She halts and thinks, then heads towards the stairwell. Hyunjin starts hearing muffled voices coming from the stairwell, thinking she must have caught her culprits because who will meet in the stairwell during work hours if it's not to discuss their thievius act! To think she had thought there was only one thief all along.

She sneaks stealthily to the emergency door and crouches near to try to listen to their conversation. Ugh these stupid emergency doors just have to be so thick that she can't hear anything except muffled sounds. She decides that confrontation is probably the best method because who dares to lie in front of her, the Hyunjin who have shown how crazy she can get when people mess with her stuff. Straightening her back, Hyunjin pushes the door open, startling the two coworkers who jumped apart immediately.

"Gotcha," Hyunjin stares, eyes narrowed at the both of them. "Why are you two so flushed?" Hyunjin voices her thoughts aloud. 

“You guys are here discussing how to keep up an act in front of me right? I know you stole it and you helped her,” she points at Hyejoo, then Chaewon accusingly. “Fess up, did you two steal my croissants?”

"What?!" The blonde exclaims. An idea suddenly pops into her mind and she looks over to Hyejoo and mutters a soft sorry before speaking up.

“We did not touch your croissants and we are here because we are dating...” Chaewon trails off softly, trying to act shy by ducking her head.

Hyunjin pauses before realization hits her. "Oh my god, Park Chaewon! Is this what I think it is? She wiggles her eyebrows at her colleague, clearly proud at her conclusion.

"Please keep it a secret?" She rubs her hands and pleads to Hyunjin.

"What are you talking about?" Hyejoo eyes wide as it shifts between Chaewon and Hyunjin nervously.

Hyunjin flashes them a mischievous grin before remembering what she's actually here for. 

"Wait, don't try to change the topic!" She growls. "Where did you go in the morning?" She points at Hyejoo.

"She- uh," Chaewon stammers as she tries to think of something. " She was getting her jacket from my car," Chaewon blurts out, thankful that Hyejoo is wearing a different one from her usual.

"Her jacket?" Hyunjin questions, eyeing Hyejoo but Chaewon immediately cuts in before her coworker can question further.

"Yeah she left one in my car the other day and forgot hers today, so she went to get it from my car," Chaewon eyes at Hyunjin.

"But we are not-" Hyejoo mutters, finally understanding what's happening but Chaewon quickly puts a hand up to stop her.

"We don't have to put up an act anymore baby." Hyunjin is good at keeping secrets," Chaewon holds her hand and attempts not to cringe outwardly at the term of endearment. Hyejoo on the other hand, blushes even more at the mention of the pet name and the sudden physical contact.

Hyunjin wonders if they are lying to get out of this. Considering how the both of them had acted around each other the past few months (especially Hyejoo and her subtle stares and blushes), Hyunjin is not that surprised to be honest. 

Her thoughts however, were cut short by Vivi's exclamations from the front office.

She heads back to the office with Chaewon and Hyejoo only to see everyone huddled around something. 

"Hyun!" Heejin approaches her as soon as she sees her. "We think a cat ate your croissants."

"What?" Hyunjin looks at the cat which is now being held up by Jiwoo. 

"See, it still has the golden flakes around its mouth," Jiwoo shakes the cat's face in front of Hyunjin.

Still not quite believing it, Hyunjin asks. "Why didn't we see or hear it around in the morning or all day then?" 

"Well it probably knows it's not supposed to come in here so it must have sneaked around," Vivi states while Hyunjin starts to consider accepting this possibility, looking back at the couple behind her. Chaewon only gives her a pointed look.

“Where’s the bag though?”Hyunjin remembers. “If the cat ate it, shouldn’t the bag be around? I couldn’t find it anywhere in the pantry! Cats can’t throw rubbish, can they?” Hyunjin retorts.

“Uh, we found this in the corner near the storeroom,”Jungeun holds up the crumpled bag for Hyunjin to see.

“It must have dragged the bag and ate there because we found crumbs all over, that’s why you weren't able to find it earlier in the pantry…” Haseul supplies.

"Well anyways, we have to bring it to the vet. Cats aren't supposed to be eating things like croissants. Poor thing, looks like it hasn't eaten for days as well," Sooyoung speaks up.

“Guess the culprit is the cat after all,” Haseul claps her hands, happy to end this.

"I guess," Hyunjin murmurs, starting to feel sorry for the skinny cat who ate her croissants.

"We'll bring it, work is ending soon too," Chaewon volunteers as Hyejoo stands behind her, head down.

"Yeah sure, go ahead," Jinsoul chimes in, giving them the approval.

Hyunjin looks over at the pair and concludes that maybe they aren't lying about the dating to cover up an act after all.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


"Hey, I'm sorry for earlier. I didn't mean to make things turn out that way." Chaewon glimpses over at Hyejoo in the passenger seat.

"It's alright… I haven't thanked you for helping me out. Good thing you thought about sneaking the cat into the office and planting the bag near the storeroom." Hyejoo utters, focusing on the cat on her lap instead. "Also, if you didn't fake us dating, we would have blown our cover in the stairwell and I'd probably have a horrible end. I should be sorry instead, you helped me so much and now you are driving us to the vet when I should be doing it alone since I was the one who fed it croissants…" Hyejoo bites her lips, feeling bad.

"Hyejoo, it's fine. You were just trying to help the cat right? You didn't even know the croissants belonged to Hyunjin and you wouldn't have known Hyunjin's crazy love for it!" Chaewon spouts, feeling a little bad for her mentee. "And I wouldn't want my only intern to suffer such an end," she mumbles softly.

"Also, you probably don't have to worry about the dating thing. Hyunjin has a tight lip, we can probably just tell her we broke up in like a month's time or something. And we can still act normal in the office since it's only Hyunjin who knows," Chaewon adds, not knowing why she's feeling some weird emotions bubbling inside her as she mentions _their_ dating problem. 

"Okay," Hyejoo replies, trying not to feel disappointed at the fact that there is going to be a lack of pretense for their fake dating relationship as she strokes the cat on her lap.

Chaewon also doesn't know why she's starting to see Hyejoo in a different light today. Maybe, just maybe it's because Chaewon felt that she had gotten closer to her intern from this incident. However, it doesn't explain why she feels her heart flips a little when she sees Hyejoo cooing at the cat in her lap.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Birthday Jinsoul!
> 
> AND we are already three chapters in haha I would love to hear thoughts about this so far... who are your fav characters or scenes? 
> 
> Once again, thank you for reading! :)


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